Let me begin by saying that I have worked for Cablevision for over a decade, and all of that time has been spent in TSG (Technical Support Group) in Jericho. The department’s mission statement was “To have an environment that is FUN, FAIR and INCLUSIVE”. Well in the last six months since Altice has taken over the company, it has been everything but, fun, fair and inclusive.
It is certainly not FAIR to the representatives to sit in an environment that is unsanitary. Altice is a slash and burn company and although we thought that the laws in this country would have prevented them from perpetrating the actions that they have taken in Europe, CLEARLY we were wrong. Our cleaning crew that kept this contact center clean, has been down-sized and by that I mean none existent. EVERYDAY for the last three weeks we come into overflowing garbage containers on the floor and frequently the odor permeates the air. Wipes containers are frequently empty and the floor and tabletops in the cafeteria are nothing short of filthy. The carpet that covers the entire floor has not been vacuumed in weeks. Pretty soon we will have all kinds of issues as we are now inhaling the filth for 8 to 11 hours at a time.
All calls requiring escalation, no longer go to our Leads, they must go straight to a supervisor. Supervisors who are so overwhelmed that they can no longer keep their game face on because they are distraught. Supervisors who no longer have the ability to coach and develop us because, even if they are in a coaching session, it MUST be interrupted to take an escalation. My own supervisor has simply taken to e-mailing me my stats because there is no time for anything else. In my opinion the supervisors currently have the most unenviable position in the contact center. Coaching sessions and meetings are cancelled constantly and when on the off chance you get one, it is interrupted so frequently that you get nothing out of it. So, with lack of support from our supervisors, due to no fault of their own, we are still expected to improve our performance. We are still stacked rank against our peers, we are still being placed on Performance Plan, which if we fail, results in termination. IS THAT FAIR?
In their slash and burn mentality, otherwise called Fearless Reinvention, Altice has drastically reduced our sick and personal hours from 80 and 30 hours respectively to 56 and 24. So, our benefits may not have changed “in aggregate” but it certainly has on an individual level. The cable benefit ( we used to get Phone, Internet and TV service free on two boxes) has changed slightly going into 2017 (additional cost to the employee) but undoubtedly it will disappear altogether in 2018.
Managers are not immune to what is happening here either. They have become call takers like the rest of us because there are SO MANY policy changes that drives escalations, it’s insane. They have also been relegated to doing work that the cleaners normally do; filling wipes canisters, filling up coffee containers, wiping down tabletops and countertops in the cafeteria, cleaning out the microwaves, all in an effort to make the environment what it once was, but they have their own tasks and without support from the TOP, to improve things the little that they can do is ineffective. They have the pressures of having to explain why NPS(Net Promoter Score) is declining and AHT (Average Handle Time) is rising.
Well it does not take a genius to know why; customers are frustrated with all the policy changes and do not forget, having their rates INCREASE TWICE IN THE SAME YEAR. Everyone wants to speak to a supervisor. Supervisors who have the same level of authority as a representative. THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO DO ANYMORE and for the most part neither can the managers. When it comes to our credit policy, NO VARIABLES are to be considered. We are not allowed to use or brains to rationalize what is in the best interest of the customer. This may not be slavery but is slavery of a sort. The answer to a credit request that the tool (IBA) denies, is simply NO at all levels. Supervisors are ALWAYS on escalations, Leads do not take escalations, so as a representative, if the customer refuses a call back we MUST wait for assistance and so our HOLD time is high and therefore the AHT is high. NPS cannot be good because the hold time is impactful to the customer experience, so no matter what the outcome, no matter how personable, respectful and empathetic you are as a representative, your NPS will still be poor.
There is nothing FUN about this environment. NO ONE wants to come to work. To get representatives here double-time pay MUST be offered. NO ONE responds to the request for OT (over-time). They even had an incentive for us to come in on OT and it did not work. If Altice USA wants representatives to be here in these conditions, outside of the time scheduled to work, paying us $25-$30 per hour is not enough, BUT for $36-$40 per hour we will consider it. It’s no fun coming into a queue every, single day. A queue driven by policies and the closing of the Shelton Contact Center. We do not get anytime between calls to breathe. The queue is always so high that our meetings and coaching sessions get canceled all the time. We get switched to different call types multiple times throughout the month without any warning and even when we are not trained to handle that particular type of call. The result; longer wait times, the need to transfer the call to a representative able to handle the call, more frustration for our customers, which results in customer escalations. It is a vicious and never-ending cycle. Supervisors are posting out every day and the joy and relief that they express once they get a new position is almost comedic.
INCLUSIVE – this is laughable. We are not included in any way shape our form. Our opinions and concerns are not addressed. Local management does their best but long gone are the days where employees had a voice. That was 6 MONTHS ago and I nor my peers are stupid, so we know those days are NEVER coming back. Altice USA does not care about the employees or the customers. They care about their bottom line – MONEY- how much of it they can save and how much of it they can make. Everything else is insignificant. They talk about clear and transparent communication, to quote one of my peers, “Clear like muddy water.”
They told New York state that they would not layoff any hourly employees for four years. And a lot of us took comfort in that knowledge. No need to lay us off when you have policies that would drive any employee to seek an environment that is better than this one. Just like the supervisors, representatives are leaving en masse. Altice keeps hiring but the employees coming in are less tenured, less knowledgeable and thereby less efficient. The customers speak about that and the wait time on almost every call that I personally have taken since the beginning of December.
I have always been loyal to Cablevision but this is NOT Cablevision. This is Altice USA and for the first time in my career, I truly believe that the only step we can take, that will make a difference in our work environment, and the security of our jobs is to become UNIONIZED.